In the present day, great value is placed on Quality of Life (QOL) in all fields. QOL is a concept that takes into consideration affluence in the physical aspect and the mental aspect, and it is desirable to maintain both of these aspects in fine condition.
However, the physical aspect, i.e., physical health, is often impaired in everyday life due to disarray in lifestyle habits including insufficient rest and sleep, irregular meal patterns, and lack of exercise. One can recover from declined physical health normally by resting, sleeping, or the like; however, when the decline in physical health becomes seriously advanced or is prolonged, it becomes difficult to recover therefrom, resulting in problems such as easily being fatigued, chronic fatigue, or the like. Such decline in physical health brings inconvenience to everyday life, becomes a stress for some people, and may result in impairment of mental health. Therefore, maintaining physical health in fine condition is very important.
In addition, the present situation is that such decline in physical health is occurring not only in elderly people whose physical strength is in decline, but also in younger people. Therefore, there is a strong call for maintaining physical health in fine condition regardless of the age.
Meanwhile, Lactobacillus ONRICb0240 (FERM BP-10065) strain, which is one type of lactobacilli, is known to have a mucosal immunization activation effect, in particular, is known to have an IgA production stimulatory effect (Patent Literature 1 and 2), and is known to have an anti-avian flu antibody production stimulatory effect (Patent Literature 3). However, there have not been any reports about this lactobacillus regarding an improvement in physical health or an improvement in QOL based thereon.